Prakash felt somehow drawn to run for political office and was successful in his first attempt amply due to the support he received from his wife. Prakash says, “I definitely owe my election to the phenomenal efforts of my wife, Veena, who was my campaign manager. She planned neighborhood gatherings, wrote press releases, organized volunteers, designed flyers, did the bookkeeping and took care of numerous details.” During those hectic times of campaigning, Prakash had many speaking engagements, posted hundreds of lawn signs all over Cypress, and walked door-to-door with Veena, asking people to vote for him. Cypress is a city of about 50,000 people where Indian families number less than 250. The task of securing votes was an uphill one, but the couple left no stone unturned.

It helped that Prakash and Veena were already known in the city. He had served on the Cypress Senior Citizens Commission for eight years and was Chief of Staff at Los Alamitos Medical Center for two years. In addition, Veena’s involvement with the PTA had been well noticed. While running for public office, Prakash felt honored to be endorsed by all five outgoing members of the Council, besides former mayors of Cypress, the former Chief of Police, and the City Manager. He won by just 43 votes; however, there was a bit more drama as one of the other candidates requested a recount. Only hours before the swearing-in ceremony on December 11, 2006, the other candidate conceded and Prakash’s victory made history.